Masonry: Stone, Rock, Stucco, Brick, and Everything In Between

[phartman]

I have tried my hand at a few masonry projects and enjoyed them. But there is much more to learn, especially as to how these materials can be used around the garage. This thread will serve to educate, illustrate, demonstrate and inspire. If you have knowledge of the masonry trades- and I have very little- please chime in here.

I can post up the pictures, but I will leave it to others to add commentary far beyond what I might. If you can go into detail as to what we are looking at, then we'll all learn something.

Deal?

To begin, a couple examples from around my neighborhood. My wife calls this her favorite entry way. Elegant in its simplicity. Parged block with a brick topper, French blue painted wooden gate. Handsome.



Adjacent to this wall is a garage driveway, set off by stone markers. The material is locally quarried rock. When I get to it, I'll post pictures of the abandoned quarries. They are right along the James River in the city.




Other entryways are larger in scale, denoting new neighborhoods.





Across the street is a grand house with formal driveway apron at the entrance. Brick laid on its side in a herringbone pattern, edged with reclaimed cobblestone from city streets. Custom iron gates.



Around the side of the property is another gate that leads to a garage, converted from a carraige house. It is there on the right. Reclaimed old brick and custom gate.

 

[4xdog]

I love walls. And brick and stone. And gateways. I've collected hundred of images here and in Europe and Asia of inspiring examples. This thread could get pretty busy!

That last photo with the brick drive and walls with the wooden gate is terrific.

 

[phartman]

Abandoned building, Birmingham, AL

 

[phartman]

Intricate use of materials, Winchester, VA

 

[phartman]

Note the applied cornice work and the applied diamond decorations. Former garage being renovated into a restaurant space. What material would that cornice work and the diamonds be??? Mortar? Dunno.

 

[ed_h]

A project I did a couple of summers ago- a low masonry wall with a deep footing and site-cast reconstituted limestone cap stones:

More pics: http://bullfire.net/YardWork/YardWork.html

 

[phartman]

Holy smokes, you did that all yourself? Oh man, my stuff is child's play compared to this project. Nice, really nice.

 

[fury9]

Did you custom cut your deck boards to get that pattern at the bottom of your pic page?

 

[ed_h]

Did you custom cut your deck boards to get that pattern at the bottom of your pic page?

Yes, they were cut using a shop-built template. The wood is Ipe.

Thanks for noticing. Most people don't.

Ed

 

[ed_h]

Holy smokes, you did that all yourself? Oh man, my stuff is child's play compared to this project. Nice, really nice.

Yes, but it took all summer. I don't need too many more projects like that one.

Ed

 

[Chaz]

Here's some of my work....This is a small Storybook rental I built several years ago.

 

[4xdog]

Here are a few images of Fanlac, a small village in the Dordogne department in southwestern France.

 

[phartman]

Can't say I'm a big fan, but I'll give the mason credit for creative use of brick in the decorative "towers" here on this garage. The sentry row cornice and the paired recessed panels over the door are quite nice details, as are the curved window headers.

In legendary Oregon Hill, Richmond, VA.

 

[phartman]

Here are a couple stone garages from my Urban Archeology thread that deserve repeating.

Raleigh, NC







Outside front Royal, VA.

 

[4xdog]

Love the stone garages, especially that last 1½ story one.

Stone is a relatively common paving material still in Europe. It's easily taken up and replaced for access underneath, lasts a loooong time, and looks super. I wish we used it more here.

These are from Germany.

The Saint Louis shield was taken in the city center of Stuttgart, where apparently the two are sister cities. We don't have anything like the Stuttgart shield in mosaic paving here that I know of!

 

[phartman]

Here in Richmond, VA, very similar material, very similar pattern. Driveway at my neighbors' houses.





While cobblestone is beautiful, it is not friendly to pedestrian traffic, and so this mason laid a brick walkway adjacent to the cobblestone drive. Edged border with basketweave pattern center.

 

[phartman]

Block with inset opposing triangles as decoration. Nashville, TN.

 

[phartman]

Carefully placed drystacked pile of stone, marking a garage entryway off the pike. Brentwood, TN.

 

[Alan Douglas]

I made this for my neighbor behind her newly-rebuilt barn. It's dry, no mortar, made of whatever stones were dug up while removing the old barn foundation. It's now longer, and the construction debris is gone. Double-faced, and stable enough to walk on the capstones.

 

[phartman]

Turning back the hands of time to early construction methods, the way it used to be....First is this rock foundation on an outbuilding, Watauga County, NC.





On many 19th century vernacular buildings, the foundation is a series of piers. Those strategic points hold the building in place. The rest of what looks like a foundation isn't at all, merely stone to keep out "critters."

Here is another example from North Carolina, this time along 159 west of Yancyville.



The bottom sill- a hewn log that spans oh 5 or 6 feet or longer- is supported on the ends. The rest of what appears to be foundation is not supporting any weight. If the sill rots, it can be tricky restoring the structure. Best to keep the sill up off the ground. Often the sill were made of locust, locally referred to as iron wood. Very resilient, almost rotproof.



A strategically placed stone is often used as a simple step. Here at the rear entrance:



The earliest form of motar that I know of is frequently found in these surviving log structures: chinking, which is the mortar in between the logs. Mud is the basic ingredient along with some lime. Various places have different formulas. Still widely used, especially on old tobacco barns. Sticks, boards and rock are also used to fill the gap with mud providing the glue.

Here are several examples from different structures.









As materials improved, chinking became more sophisticated. Modern chinking is still motar-based. Here is an example on a log structure from the '30s. Note the block foundation with vents, also an improvement.

 

[phartman]

Is it any wonder there is so much good stonework around Nashville, TN? Here is a cut behind a drug store on the way to Brentwood. Good natural materials are everywhere in abundance.

 

[dreamingmuscle]

Note the applied cornice work and the applied diamond decorations. Former garage being renovated into a restaurant space. What material would that cornice work and the diamonds be??? Mortar? Dunno.

If it's new work. Believe it or not it's most likely Styrofoam covered with stucco.

Beautiful pictures btw.

Glen

 

[phartman]

Sometimes the smallest of details add huge visual interest. This bridge has undergone a restoration over the past two years. The design firm added the recessed panel to the support, as well as a subtle change in the color of the mortar. It is otherwise a spartan design.

But what a big difference these two small additions make in the overall aesthetic appeal of an overlooked utilitarian element. From Plain Jane to VaVaVoom. Nice, really nice touch.

Lesson learned: it doesn't take much to add interest to your design, just a little thought.

 

[brickG-man]

Sometimes the smallest of details add huge visual interest. This bridge has undergone a restoration over the past two years. The design firm added the recessed panel to the support, as well as a subtle change in the color of the mortar. It is otherwise a spartan design.

But what a big difference these two small additions make in the overall aesthetic appeal of an overlooked utilitarian element. From Plain Jane to VaVaVoom. Nice, really nice touch.

Lesson learned: it doesn't take much to add interest to your design, just a little thought.

I highly suspect that these are poured concrete and no brick or stone masonry involved.

 

[phartman]

Yup, all poured concrete. But still, very nice design work.

Maybe this will appeal to you more. On the same ramble this afternoon. Brick with accents of slate, likely from Arvonia-Buckingham slate company, which is a couple counties away.







This nice use of mixed materials. Slate, too, on the roof as shingles, and on the steps in front.


I only know of a handful of houses here locally with these corner and door/window decorative elements.

 

[phartman]

Slate is used all over the city here, even on houses that don't today merit such expensive roofing materials. Such as this one: asphalt faux stone siding, but check out the roof. Yup, slate. It was in plentiful supply everywhere locally because of the proximity of the quarries that supplied it.

 

[phartman]

I ran across this building last week. Applied river rock to the first floor. I like it.

 

[Engineer61]

Note the applied cornice work and the applied diamond decorations. Former garage being renovated into a restaurant space. What material would that cornice work and the diamonds be??? Mortar? Dunno.

The blue diamonds and blue accent bars are tiles. Old style way to make those cornices is mortar over chicken-wire and wood slats, the slats left in place to rot out over a decade or so leaving hollow places in the mortar cornices.

 

[phartman]

Serpentine wall, Goodwin house, Cary Street Road, Richmond. Inspired by the same at Mr. Jefferson's university in Charlottesville.

 

[phartman]

More river rock. Driveway entrance pillar and iron gate.

 

[phartman]

Neighbor's house.

 

[JimVonBaden]

Yes, they were cut using a shop-built template. The wood is Ipe.

Thanks for noticing. Most people don't.

Ed

Of all the impressive work you did this was the best!

Jim

 

[JimVonBaden]

Here in Richmond, VA, very similar material, very similar pattern. Driveway at my neighbors' houses.

That is pretty much all you see in Portugal and Spain as well.

But there is some variation.

Jim

 

[HoosierB]

Here in Southern Indiana, we have been blessed with some of the best (if not the best) limestone in the world. Limestone from my county has been used to build notable buildings such as the Empire State Building, The Pentagon and countless others. It was also used extensively in the local market to build homes and structures.

Limestone is near and dear to my heart due to the fact that happen to live in a house that is constructed out of it! The house was started in 1901 and is traditionally framed using native lumber with true dimensional 2x8's for the walls and 2x12's for the floor trusses. It was then clad in 10" thick, tooled face, limestone blocks. At the same time the house was being built, the workers were also busy the Carriage House and the limestone fence/wall that surrounds the property.

Something kind of interesting, the prospective home owner paid to have an electrician travel from Chicago all the way down here to install knob & tube throughout the house. That was a long trip back in the day! That's where the electrification stopped though. The Carriage House still had the original piping and burners used to illuminate it using natural gas!

I've attached a few pictures. A few of present day and "back in the day"!

 

[LutzTD]

if you ever go to Disney World, they have some really cool walls, however sometimes Im not sure if they are layed stone or carved from spray on stuff. I have some pics Ill have to dig out, funny I was taking pictures of stonework in betwwen character pics with my daughter

 

[phartman]

Gates to the city, Coral Gables, FL. I guess that's what it was. A business trip took me there this past week.

 

[phartman]

A couple other structures there in Coral Gables I happened upon.

 

[beeph]

people generally use the most abundant material... In a province in china they had tons of granite quarries.. so everything was built of.. granite. No need to buy fire insurance. ***** to drill through to run cable, though.

 

[phartman]

I've had block on my mind recently. I've also reflected on the post above about "abundant materials." How builders- and all of us- adapt to our circumstances. Yesterday I ran across this church on my way to hunt club summer work day.

Country boy Gothic Revival church architecture through creative use of block. Cumberland County, VA.

Here's what the mason had seen once in a picture...



Here's what he built for the church folks who needed a new building...

 

[Victorymike18]

What a neat thread!

There is an abundance of interesting stone work here in NJ and PA. I'll be keeping my camera handy as I drive around with this thread in mind.